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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

ScreenLeap Drastically Simplifies Basic Screen Sharing

ScreenLeap's founder, Tuyen Truong, and team members set out to make screen sharing simple. After extensive research, coding, testing, and feedback they have succeeded. This is screen sharing even your grandma can use! The initial web app offers:

2 click instant sharing (1 if you grant perpetual permission)

No user account for either end

Nothing for the viewer to install

Anyone with a browser can see the shared screen

Many will argue that this already exists. It does on a feature/product level with services like GoToMeeting, WebEx, and JoinMe available. Although, none can match the simplicity and universal availability of ScreenLeap. Did I mention it was free? It is, and always will be. They plan to monetize it by proving additional premium features that are available for a charge.

What makes this so powerful is that I can share my screen with my wife on her Chromebook, on my parent's iPad, on my friend's Android phone, and of course on my brother's Windows laptop; all at the same time and in real-time. The viewer is simply on a webpage built with HTML and JavaScript while the presenter allowed a Java plug-in access to broadcast their screen.

Upon arriving at screenleap.com the presenter will click "share your screen now" to start the session. Once that is done you are given a link people will use to access the broadcast. If it is not easy to send the link you can verbally give them a share code to enter in the field at the top right of the homepage. The sharer is able to see how many people are viewing and also limit what part of the screen is shared.

What does the future hold? "We want to really nail the screen sharing experience first and make it work reliably for everyone. Remote desktop control and live collaboration are follow-up ideas that we are definitely looking into," Truong says. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.